Prehistoric skull tells researchers that man needed meat in order to thrive

Saturday, October 13, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: prehistoric skulls, meat consumption, human diet

(NaturalNews) A prehistoric human skull recently unearthed from a gorge in eastern Africa provides new evidence that meat has actually been a vital part of the human diet for far longer than some scientists believe. According to research out of The Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, the skull fragment exhibits clear signs of B-vitamin deficiency, which researchers believe points to the fact that humans have always needed meat in their diets to avoid vitamin deficiencies and facilitate proper development.

Published in the open-access journal PLoS One, the findings contradict an erroneous belief held by some that early man was primarily vegetarian, and that meat was a rare or nonexistent component of the prehistoric diet. Based on the types of bone lesions observed in the skull, which appears to have come from a child of about two years of age, the research team determined that the individual to whom it was once attached had anemia due to an inadequate amount of meat in the diet.

Because the skull appears to have come from a child who was just leaving the weaning period of his life, the team says the lesions appear indicative of meat deficiency, as the child had not yet transitioned from breast milk to solid foods that included meat. The child's mother was apparently also meat-deficient, since she clearly did not pass on the necessary vitamins for healthy development to her child.

"I know this will sound awful to vegetarians, but meat made us human," said researcher and archaeologist Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo about the findings. "Human brain development could not have existed without a diet based on regular consumption of meat."

The meat consumed by early humans was far different than the type consumed in mainstream society today, however. Rather than be raised in confinement and fed unnatural, genetically-modified (GM) corn and soy, animals eaten for food in prehistoric days lived in the wild where they hunted other small animals or grazed on grasslands. This major difference accounts for the compositional differences between wild meat and confined meat, the latter of which is linked to causing chronic health problems.

Grass-fed, pastured meat and meat products are the closest equivalent to the type of meat that prehistoric man ate, and it is the best option for you and your family today. Unlike feedlot-based meat and meat products, which contain virtually no omega-3 fatty acids, grass-fed meat and meat products are nutritionally superior and contain balanced ratios of the nutrients the body needs for vibrant health. (http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm)

Sources for this article include:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://www.livescience.com/23671-eating-meat-made-us-human.html